Peru: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Peru known for?

Peru is best known for Machu Picchu, the lost Inca citadel high in the Andes, and for the vast Nazca Lines etched across its coastal desert. The country is megadiverse. Its habitats run from the Amazon rainforest in the east to the arid Pacific coast in the west, sheltering wildlife far beyond the familiar llamas and condors.

Its people are as varied as its land, a blend of many indigenous groups alongside mestizo and criollo traditions.

Where is Peru?

Peru occupies a large stretch of western South America, the third largest country on the continent by area. The Pacific Ocean forms its western and southern edge. Five nations ring the rest.

Ecuador and Colombia lie to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the southeast, and Chile to the south. Within those borders the land splits into three great bands that run the length of the country. A narrow desert coast fronts the Pacific in the west, a strip of arid plains where most of the shoreline lies.

Behind it the Andes rise, the mountain chain that crosses Peru from the north to the southeast and carries its highest, ice-capped peaks. East of the mountains the ground falls into the tropical Amazon basin, drained by the Amazon River. The three bands sit side by side, so a short journey inland can climb from sea-level desert to snow and then down into the rainforest.

This spread of settings, from arid coast to high mountain to jungle, makes Peru one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. Few countries hold so much at once.

What is the history of Peru?

Peru's story reaches back long before the modern republic. Great civilizations rose here in the ancient Andes and along the arid desert coast of the Pacific. The Inca are the best remembered.

Their mountain realm centred on the high Andes, and their finest surviving work is Machu Picchu, the stone citadel that still crowns a ridge deep in the range. Yet the Inca were latecomers in a much older human story. The Nazca Lines, the enormous figures and shapes traced across the southern desert, were cut into the ground by coastal peoples who lived there long before the Inca ever rose to power.

Layer upon layer of culture built up across the coast, the mountains, and the edge of the Amazon. The republic itself is young by comparison. Peru was founded as an independent state in 1821, drawing the coast, the Andes, and the Amazon into a single country.

Its people still carry that long inheritance, blending dozens of distinct indigenous groups with mestizo and criollo traditions. The past here is not distant. It stands there in the stone and the open desert for anyone to see.

What is Peru like?

Peru is one of the most culturally varied countries in South America. Its people are a blend of many roots. Dozens of distinct indigenous groups live across the land, alongside mestizo and criollo communities, each with its own traditions, dress, and cooking.

Spanish is the common language that ties them together. That mix is old and deep, the outcome of many peoples meeting on the same ground over long centuries. Food is a point of pride.

Every region sets its own table, drawing on what the coast, the mountains, and the jungle each provide, and the meeting of indigenous and later influences has given the country a name for its kitchens. Landscape shapes daily life as much as descent does. Communities of the arid Pacific coast, the high Andes, and the Amazon rainforest live in very different worlds within one nation.

Wildlife runs through it too, from highland llamas to the condors over the peaks. Their colourful traditions and food differ from valley to valley, so travelling here means meeting many cultures rather than one. That variety is the point.

What is the climate of Peru?

Peru holds several climates at once. The Pacific coast is a true desert, dry for most of the year under grey skies. The Andes set their own rules.

High in the mountains the air turns cold and thin, snow caps the tallest peaks throughout the year, and nights stay chill even when the lowlands are warm. East of the range the Amazon rainforest is hot and wet, humid under heavy jungle rain. One country runs from desert to snow to steaming forest.

How do you get to Peru?

Peru is a large country to cross, and most visitors arrive by air at Lima, the capital on the Pacific coast. From that hub the country opens in three directions. Roads and flights climb inland to the Andes and the highland approaches to Machu Picchu.

Others push east into the Amazon rainforest, a green lowland where much of the travel happens by river once the roads finally give out. The coast road runs the length of the desert shore, linking the Pacific towns and the Nazca Lines. Distances are vast.